DynamoDB IoT Application Partition Key Selection

Partition Key for Effective Key Distribution

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Question

A company is planning to develop an IoT application that will make use of a DynamoDB table.

The structure of the table is given below. Attribute Name Type Description Device ID String Automatically generated GUID Device type String The type name of the IoT device Location String Place/ Area Status code String The current status of the IoT device Which of the following should be chosen as the partition key to ensure the MOST effective distribution of keys?

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Explanations

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A. B. C. D.

Answer - A.

The most effective one will be the Device ID since this would ideally be unique and give a better key partition.

Because of GUID provides programmatically unique Identity.

For more information on DynamoDB, please refer to the below URLs-

https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/best-practices.html, https://docs.aws.amazon.com/amazondynamodb/latest/developerguide/bp-partition-key-uniform-load.html

To ensure the most effective distribution of keys in a DynamoDB table, it is important to choose a partition key that distributes the data evenly across partitions. The partition key determines the partition where an item will be stored, and evenly distributing items across partitions helps to avoid hot partitions, which can result in uneven performance and increased latency.

In the given table structure, the best choice for the partition key would be a key that is highly diverse and evenly distributed across the table. Based on the information provided, the Device ID is an automatically generated GUID, and it is likely that this key will be unique for each item. Choosing Device ID as the partition key would distribute the data evenly across partitions, ensuring optimal performance.

The other attributes in the table, such as Device type, Location, and Status code, are unlikely to be as diverse and evenly distributed as the automatically generated GUID in Device ID. For example, there may be only a few device types, a limited number of locations, and a small set of status codes. Choosing any of these attributes as the partition key may result in uneven distribution of data across partitions, leading to hot partitions and increased latency.

Therefore, the best choice for the partition key in this scenario is A. Device ID.